Tuesday 24 March 2020

Impossible good news

"Syme could only feel an unnatural buoyancy in his body and a crystal simplicity in his mind that seemed to be superior to everything that he said or did. He felt he was in possession of some impossible good news, which made every other thing a triviality, but an adorable triviality."

From The man who was Thursday by GK Chesterton, 1908

That's how I felt this morning; as if bouyed by an impossible - indeed ridiculous and paradoxical - upwelling of Good News. Evidence of a pretty large, and positive, change in my perspective - living more here and now and in the divine presence; no longer living so much in the past and the future.

10 comments:

Francis Berger said...

Well, that is good news indeed! Perspective has become a sort of key word and guiding force for me over these past few weeks.

On a side note, I really like the novel you quoted.

Bruce Charlton said...

@Frank - It was such a strong 'conisder the lilies' feeling that I actually caught myself trying to push it down by trying to scare myself! Such are the demonic temptations of life.

Jacob Gittes said...

Thanks for this one. I myself have had some amazing feelings of grace and connection, including with the developing relationship.

My brother was talking to me on the phone yesterday and seemed nonplussed that I didn't seem more worried. "Are you WORRIED about this?" he inquired.

Even the ancient stoics knew that worry was not useful, even if they lacked the hope and sense of connection and love that Jesus could bring.

The other half of this relationship is very disconnected from the matrix, but even she has felt strange shifts and chaos in whatever spiritual and energetic dimension that a sensitive human can access.

It's so very clarifying. I do wish I could find a few more people locally that don't seem primarily driven by fear and despair, however.

Stephen Macdonald said...

I would echo what others here say. Since this started I have felt increasingly connected to Jesus Christ. An apt description of the feeling was expressed by John Butler in the video shared by Bruce last Friday. A deeply anchored, peaceful feeling.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:7

Brief Outlines said...

Wow, in the last couple of days, I've had moments like this too, but so fleeting and short that I had forgotten about them till reading this! God bless you


Bruce Charlton said...

@Jake, Nova, Amo - Glad to hear this! It's a faith-strengthening blessing, for which I am so grateful.

Nancy said...

I, too, felt a flickering up-welling of peace and goodness and contentment, today, as I ran some errands. It is good to hear of others being so blessed, as well. Especially in this time of trouble and worry for so many. Blessings to you all. I'm a watcher here (don't like the sound of 'lurker'), and am often strengthened and caused to think outside my normal box, both by the posts (thank you, Bruce) and by the comments.

David Earle said...

From observing social media, and what people like Bill Gates or organizations like WHO are saying, it sounds to me like they are going to claim this pandemic indefinitely. They will say countries will need to remain on lockdown/quarantine because day-by-day it's "just not safe yet". They will continue to say this with complete disregard to the economy.

I feel like very soon (weeks) countries/people will be faced with the question--do we ignore advice from "experts" and go back to work, or remain at home out of fear of the virus.

I think that's how this will play out. There's going to be a rising tension in countries. Fortunately, Trump appears at least to want to release these restrictions asap before irreversible damage is done, while other countries will claim to follow expert advice from WHO, and remain closed while never estimating a date.

It will come down to PEOPLE begging to open up their countries again. And there will be the other half of their country who are begging for those people to remain quarantined by state force.

I feel like by Easter, this battle will start playing out very obviously.

a_probst said...

Such a stark contrast to the Syme in Orwell.

Brief Outlines said...

More came today, increasing in length and intensity